Darkness
by WeBuiltThePyramids
Summary: "This can't be over. Please. Please tell me it's not."


**I have some smut I wrote in preparation for the angst fest that is the week between 3.22 and 3.23 but I need to read over it one more time and it will be published tomorrow. In the meantime...here's this.**

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The shock of being dragged out of the garage had worn off by the time they neared the condo, and Ralph was frantic.

"Mom, that's our _family_!"

"What am I supposed to do, Ralph?" She said, slamming on the gas to get through a yellow light. They were almost home. She didn't want to stop moving. "What do you want me to do?"

"It has to be fixed," her son said, his voice shrill. "It has to! Mom!"

"Ralph," Paige snapped, "I don't know what I'm supposed to do. He's made it very clear he wants nothing to do with me."

"He didn't say that! He just said that you aren't working for Scorpion anymore. That's not permanent!"

Paige pulled into the parking lot and flew to the spots right in front of their door. She threw the car in park so fast it almost wasn't stopped. She huffed as she opened the door, and Ralph jumped out of the backseat just as quickly. " _Mom_!"

She turned to him, ready to tell him that even though they were angry with Walter...then her thought trailed off. Ralph wasn't angry with Walter. "You're mad at me, aren't you?"

The boy shook his head. "No. But I'm confused. Mom, it's all _so_ close."

"Close to what, Ralph?" She said. "You forget I'm not a genius, I don't know what the hell you're talking about." She regretted it instantly. "I'm sorry, honey. I'm just stressed. I shouldn't talk to you that way." She reached out to muss his hair. The boy didn't lean away, but he did look like he wanted to.

"Come on," she said. "It's chilly out here and you don't have a coat."

"Mom, you have to talk to Walter," Ralph said as they reached the door to the condo. "You have to. If you guys can just talk, then..."

Paige pushed the door open, forcefully, and closed it hard when they were both inside and tossing the items in her hands onto the table. "He doesn't want to talk to me. And honestly, I don't want to talk to him right now either. Maybe not again. Who knows. Who knows anything at this point."

"Mom, if you really do love him, he can't be mad. Maybe you were just as scared as he was. And if not, when he has more time to think, he could realize that he's alive because of you, and maybe then he won't be so mad."

"He's a genius. He's never going to be able to learn how to be in the real world."

" _I'm_ a genius," Ralph said forcefully. "And I live in the same world that you do. It's just as real to me."

Paige stopped, sighing. "Yeah. You're right. I'm sorry." Three years ago her son was nearly mute and only spoke to her in short, quiet sentences. Now he was speaking to her as if they were both adults. She softened slightly. "Ralph..."

"You're angry. I get that. That's valid. But you're angrier and more volatile than you would be in other circumstances because you're trying to mask pain."

"Pain? Ralph, I don't care about Walter O'Brien enough to..."

"You do. You do love him. This wouldn't hurt so badly if you didn't."

"Ralph, you can't just think you understand..."

"But Mom. It's science. You can't have even without odd. You can't have light without dark. You can't define strong without defining weak. And the brightest light casts the darkest shadow."

Paige was very tired. "Ralph, what are you trying to say?"

"I'm saying, you've lost a lot of jobs in your life. This one got you so angry and upset because it means so much to you. Walter means so much to you." Ralph's eyes were large. "Mom, you have to fix it. This has never been just a job. This is our _family_ , Mom."

She sighed. She missed the days when it was easy for Ralph to believe she could do anything because his wishes were so small accomplishing them were easy. "Ralph, I'm sorry. But there's nothing I can do. It's over." Her voice cracked. "It's over." She sank down onto the couch. She thought about earlier in the day, when she'd so forcefully called the others _my team_.

Ralph sat on the coffee table ahead of her. "Mom. It doesn't have to be." His eyes were large, and Paige was startled when she saw the tears in them. "Mom." Now his voice was cracking, too. "Mom, this can't be it. It can't be over."

"Baby," she said, sitting up and leaning forward. _We always lose our family, don't we?_ "Baby, listen to me. I know this...this hurts." The way she said hurts sounded pained in itself. "But you're here. And I'm here. Breaking it all down, it's always been you and me. We've done this alone before. We can do it again. As long as we have each other. That's all we really need, at the end of the day."

Ralph's eyebrows lifted hopefully. "So you're not going to call Tim?"

Tim was the last person on her mind. "No, God no."

He nodded, biting his lip as he averted his gaze. Then, "Mom?"

"Yeah, Ralph."

"This can't be over. Please. Please tell me it's not."

She wrung her hands, recalling how he'd been taking to her earlier. She opted to take the same route with him. "Ralph, I wish I could tell you that it's not. But...but I don't work for Scorpion anymore. And Walter may not ever talk to me again."

"Walter lost Cabe. They had a falling out. They were so important to each other and then they went years without speaking. I don't...I don't want..."

Paige slid off the couch, going to her knees, and she reached out and pulled her son into her arms. She could feel his chin resting on her shoulder. "Mom," he whimpered after a moment. "Lately, you and Walter have been...I..."

Paige almost wished he wouldn't finish. But she was too curious as to what he was going to say. "You what?"

Silence. Then, "I thought you two would be together. I thought...I thought maybe we were really going to be something else. The three of us, I...I thought it was falling into place."

Paige sighed. _So did I, Ralph. So did I._

She could feel her son's body – feeling much smaller than twelve years at the moment – shaking in her arms as the boy started to cry. Paige clung to him, hoping he wouldn't let go until her own eyes dried. She'd never cried in front of him before. It was a point of pride with her. He was her baby. He couldn't see her cry.

But her baby was growing up. Paige used that to justify the pained sound that rushed through her lips as she let the tears fall.

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 **THE END**


End file.
